Dear Friends,

Last week I spent a thoughtful time down at our college in the Central Philippines on the island of Negros. The main industry and life blood of the island is the growing and harvesting of sugar cane.

I had taken a late afternoon walk outside the college and met up with some high school young people walking back to their small villages which are sprinkled among the sugar cane. These little villages
or "haciendas" as they are called by the locals exist entirely for the planting, caring for and harvesting of the sugar cane crop. It is extremely labor intensive work and provides most of the jobs and income
for the people there.

I asked one of the young people to get me some sugar cane so I could eat it on the way home. She got her grandmother to expertly prepare a stick of sugar cane and off I went to delight in its sweet juices.
You eat sugar cane by taking a bite of the ivory pulp in your mouth and then chew it until the very sweet nectar miraculously oozes out to the plant. Pure sugar. Pure delight. Then you spit the pulp out
and repeat process until satisfied.

Let's face it, most people have many trails and problems in their life. Their minds chew over and over again on bitter things and sometimes that bitterness gets spit out on others. Only Jesus can make us sweet.
He is the one that has promised to give us beauty for ashes, the sweet oil of gladness for the bitter pulp of despair.

I snapped this picture of blooming sugar cane plants at sunset. May you and I bloom sweetly today in His glorious light and love.